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Superhero's and their Sidekicks have been a staple of the comic book industry since it's inception. A sidekick was not only meant to help combat villains in the superhero universe, but was also a device used to push the main hero forward, keep him accountable, and expand the story week after week. But in the modern superhero filmic landscape, the superhero sidekick has become a thing of the past. But why has Marvel and DC abandoned a once essential part of superhero stories?
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0:00
I am a little hungry
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Of course, Robin. Even crime fighters must eat. And especially you, you're a growing boy and you need your nutrition
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Every great metropolis has a silent avenger. A secret paragon of truth, justice, and equality
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And typically speaking, these iconic do-gooders have one thing in common. They all have sidekicks
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Teenage accomplices of the hero in question, charged with taking up the creed and legacy of their mentors
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And yet, the more these beloved four-color vigilantes are adapted into billion-dollar film franchises
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the less we see of their adolescent-supporting acts. Let's face it, the superhero sidekick is a thing of the past
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Undoubtedly, when thinking of a superhero sidekick, the first one that leaps to mind is Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Robin
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While today's episode isn't exclusively a Robin episode, it's going to feature a lot of discussion about the boy wonder
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because, inarguably, he's the most iconic sidekick. Robin was created for two reasons
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The first was a simple sales ploy. DC Comics and Bat creators Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson
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were attempting to appeal to the primarily young readership of the book
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While Batman might have been initially introduced as a brooding, gun-wielding anti-hero
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everyone involved with the character rapidly figured out that the quickest way to make money was to sell him to the reader base of mostly children
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The second reason Robin was created was purely logistical, to give Batman someone to talk to
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While Jerry Robinson was the person primarily responsible for pushing the idea that Batman
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would have a Robin Hood-themed sidekick, it was Bill Finger who built out all of the narrative
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real estate that was given to the character. As quoted in Steranko's History of Comics
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Finger relayed the creation as such, Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob
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As I said, Batman was a combination of Douglas Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes
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Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn have anyone to talk to and it got tiresome always having him thinking But this archetype of a young companion aiding the adult superhero in their war on injustice wouldn be a one
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The formula proved so successful that teen or child sidekicks became all the rage
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across basically every publisher. From Bucky, to Toro, to Speedy, to Donna Troy, to Superboy, to Jubilee
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Basically every superhero at one point or another has been given a teen sidekick in
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order to attempt to sell books. And they worked. But these characters serve a much more noble purpose than just simply attempting to pull in a younger audience
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They serve as a grounding element to the heroes. This is ironic considering the idea of an 11-year-old child learning martial arts
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and using his familial gymnastic skills to take up a life of crime-fighting is pretty unbelievable
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And yet, this type of logic has been a staple of sidekicks for close to 80 years
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with Robin being the prime example. But here's the thing. When sidekicks are brought into other mediums, they're usually aged up
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Robbins only appeared in two incarnations on the big screen in live action
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Once in Batman the Movie from 1966, and then again in the two Batman films directed by Joel Schumacher
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In his prestige adaptation, the character is taken in by Bruce Wayne after the murder of his family
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The only problem being, he's being played by Chris O'Donnell, who at the time of the film's release was 25 years old
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Yeah, he was a grown man who could have had a master's degree and entered the workforce, but instead, he was doing karate laundry in Wayne Manor
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Robin's youth and innocence serves as a ray of hope in Bruce Wayne's dour world
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He's there to smile, laugh, and remind Bruce that the world can be b with optimism
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The world of Batman, as with all superheroes, is an ecosystem of symbols that are just as important in their world as they are in ours
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There have been a few close calls with Robin almost making it to the big screen over the years
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In fact, he was going to appear in each of Tim Burton's Batman films, with Marlon Wayans literally being cast in Returns and then being paid not to appear in the final film
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Why was he cut Because the powers that be were worried that introducing a teen sidekick would make our protagonist seem less grim and gritty that the film wouldn be taken as seriously You just jealous because I a genuine freak and you have to wear a mask
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This underlying concern is the primary driving force behind basically every sidekick in comics history
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either being cut or aged up prior to the cameras rolling on their big screen outings
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Captain America appeared on film three separate times prior to the MCU
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All three of them refused to acknowledge Bucky. And even though Bucky might be a global icon now, who has legions of internet fans
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the character is significantly aged up in his first Avenger role. Is the character well portrayed? Yes
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But he also serves as an example of how these companies have to do backflips to justify the idea of a sidekick
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Marvel Studios only tolerated the idea of Bucky because they knew the Winter Soldier was around the corner
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Think of it this way. Batman has appeared in 13 live-action feature films
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Tim Drake's Robin has never been in one of the movies. Over the course of the existence of superhero movies, the genre was initially viewed as goofy kids' fare
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However, as projects like Donner's Superman, Burton's Batman, and Blade brought credibility to the genre, it began to blossom
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The 90s and early 2000s saw an influx of adaptations of beloved properties
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most with an emphasis on grounded realism. Sure, the X-Men were on the screen, but they were wearing black leather
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From there, after almost 20 years of comics being adapted and many of the trappings, tropes, and visual accoutrements of the genre
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making their way onto the big screen, sidekicks still aren't really there
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Hollywood still thinks the audience's suspension of disbelief will be broken by seeing a 12-year-old flipping around and kicking criminals in the face
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which is deeply strange because it's literally been done before. Kick-ass. Yeah, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy are pretty much just a satirical send-up
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of the 1966 Burt Ward and Adam West dynamic but with a bit more violence which frankly is a quality that two out of the four primary Robins have already become closely associated with So are we living in a
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world that will soon see a rush of teen sidekicks? No, probably not. A core element of these characters
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is their youth and vitality, something which their big screen or even small screen counterparts
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just seem incapable of ever really accepting. The primal innocence of youth apparently flies in the
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face of every version of the adaptation of these characters. Regardless of how grounded or whimsical
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the specifics of the story they might be appearing in are. Take, for example, the antipathy towards
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the idea of the sidekick displayed in Zack Snyder's version of the Bat Family. Robin is literally more
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interesting dead than alive. Can't have a little kid running around the world where Batman brands
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people, right? Jesus Christ, he branded him. Even look at the Titans TV show. That's a show
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literally composed almost exclusively of former sidekicks who all form a team
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and they have to be grounded in this gritty nihilism so deeply it almost fails to resemble the Titans
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There's something intrinsically innocent, primarily colored, and uplifting about teen or child sidekicks
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They obviously wouldn't be right for every version of these superhero worlds, but come on
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They've literally only made it to live action a handful of times, and they almost never reflect their comic book counterparts
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Rick Jones isn't in the MCU. Wonder Girl? Nowhere. Aqualad? Nope. Superboy? Nada. It's frustrating
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You'd think they would be around, but you'd be wrong because these studios are desperate to have
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these characters taken seriously, even when the films themselves are overtly comedies
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Superheroes are supposed to remind us who we should aspire to be. They should push us to reach
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for our utmost potential. And what is more important than having characters that are
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the appropriate age for the intended audience to truly internalize these lessons. These characters
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give these stories a completely unique lens to view the world. They teach young people that even
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if it seems impossible, that there's always a hope. There's always a way to continue. Plus
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they give the protagonist someone to talk to